Tutorial Details: Python Programming

This one-day workshop will review introductory language features in the early sessions and move towards more advanced topics in the afternoon.

Python is a general purpose programming language with a rich syntax and structure. You can learn to use Python and see almost immediate gains in productivity relative to programming with other languages. Python has many modules specializing in various topics of interest to the scientific community and is used as an interface for numerous scientific packages. The first session of this workshop provides an introduction to Python. Simple and advanced data types, variable assignment, control structures, mathematical and logical operators, program input and output, and functional programming will be discussed. This workshop is hands-on, and attendees will write several programs during the workshop.

Afternoon sessions will demonstrate advanced and special topics such as writing object-oriented Python, writing multithreaded code, communicating with databases using an object relational mapper, reading and writing spreadsheets, and advanced numerical computing with SciPy and NumPy.

10-11am - Introduction

11-12pm – Hands-on for Python introduction

12-1 – Lunch break

1-2:30 Advanced topics lecture

2:30-4:00 Advanced topics hands-on

Prerequisites: To get the full benefit of this workshop, attendees should be comfortable working in a GNU/Linux environment and have some programming experience.